Naushad, SD Burman and the Crown

A Canada based friend of Pakistani origin pronounced that in his view Naushad was by far the best among Indian composers. Another friend, a Kolkatan, would argue with vehemence that SD Burman was the greatest by some distance. So, two friends and two choices. I am sure there would be others with other choices. And why not? When making an assessment today, there should be a comparison asking questions like: "Why is Naushad the greatest?  Or Why SD Burman? Why not Khayyam, Jaidev, Roshan or Madan Mohan? Why not OP Nayyar? Why not RD Burman, LP, SJ? My friend, UK based Hindi writer, Tejendra Sharma, with very deep knowledge of films, argues that Shankar Jaikishan were peerless. 

I have never thought on these lines. To me, such pronouncements are only statements of preference and nothing else. Besides, when making a comment like this, while one keeps in mind the great compositions of their favourite composers, they tend to ignore those of others. The field of music is not like that of athletics or swimming where you can determine the greatest by the time clocked or medals won. At any point in time when a composition touches your soul that composer/singer is the best. But I was prompted to think if there could be any quantifiable parameters to rank the composers. The most obvious measuring parameter would be major awards. My research on this count threw up some interesting results.

1)  If we look at the list of Filmfare award winners among his contemporaries, Naushad would not compare favourably with the composers active alongside him. To Naushad's one Filmfare award (Baiju Bawra), Shankar Jaikishan won 9 and Laxmikant Pyarelal 7 (from a record 25 nominations).  Ravi, Khayyam and S D Burman won twice each.

2) It may be interesting to note that in the 1961 Filmfare awards, in which K Asif's magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam was in contention, the best music director award was won by Shankar Jaikishan for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. Ironically, Shakeel Badayuni and Rafi Sahab did win the Best Lyricist and Best Playback Singer awards respectively, but for Chaudavin Ka Chand, not for Mughal-e-Azam.

3) Jaidev won the National Award for Best Music Director thrice, Khayyam, Madan Mohan, SD Burman and Kalyanji Anandji once each. Unfortunately, Naushad never won the award.

4) It is widely believed that Mohammed Rafi's best songs were Naushad's compositions. However, out of the six Filmfare awards won by Rafi Sahab, three were for songs composed by Shankar Jaikishan (all of them while Naushad was at his peak) and one each for Luxmikant Pyarelal, Ravi and RD Burman.

So, based on these numbers neither Naushad was the greatest nor SD Burman. However, I do not accept awards as the measuring parameter as there is bound to be a gap between the experts' opinion and the popular choice. Awards do not tell the correct story. To illustrate the point let me quote an example. SD Burman regarded Guide as his own favourite out of all his work, and a look at the quality of music justifies the view.  Ironically, though, in spite of all the high quality ingredients, Guide lost the Filmfare award to Suraj. So, to me awards are not always fair.

However, this Naushad or SD debate inspired me to take a deeper look at the body of work of these two great masters and I am sharing my views on them.

Naushad

Talking about Naushad, going by what I have heard from the music lovers of the earlier generation, there certainly was an aura of grandeur about Naushad Sahab when he was at his peak. No wonder, when Raju Bharatan, who has written many books and articles on the golden era of Hindi film music, wrote a book on Naushad, he titled it "Naushadnama", a title similar to "Baburnama", "Humayun-nama" or "Akbarnama", the memoirs of the great Moghuls. To Bharatan, Naushad was the Moghul - the only one of the type - of Hindi film music. During his heydays Naushad was the only choice of producers and directors like A R Kardar and Mehboob Khan. Naushad composed the music for two all-time great classics Mother India and Mughal - e - Azam.

Naushad must be given the credit for raising the standard of film music which was nearly primitive in its early years. Through the forties his music evolved in singing style, instrumentation and output quality. The music of Rattan(1944), with fourteen songs sung by ensemble singers took the music scene by storm. In Shahjahan, Naushad could get the best out of KL Sehgal. Noorjahan's Awaz de Kahan hai in Anmol Ghadi remains her best ever. Naushad's compositions for AR Kardar's Dard (1947), Dillagi and Dulari (1949), turned out to be milestones. By the time of Mela (1948) and Andaz (1949), Naushad had acquired the status of a celebrity. With Dulari and Andaz started the long association of Naushad with Lataji, an association which gave many gems.

Naushad has many firsts to his credit. He was the first one to make classical, raga based, songs a part of popular film music. And he remains the only composer who would almost always base his compositions on classical music. He is credited with mentoring singers like Noor Jehan, Suraiya and Shamsad Begum in their early years. It was Naushad under whom Rafi Sahab discovered his potential and went on to become the great singer that he is known to be. Naushad introduced a large variety of instruments into his compositions. He started blending Hindustani classical and folk music. If Rattan was a trendsetter in 1944, another turning point came with Baiju Bawara in 1952 when, in a film based on the life a music legend, Naushad introduced pure classical music in a film. This film turned out to be a defining milestone in many ways. Naushad achieved a coup of sorts by getting to sing maestros like DV Puluskar and Amir Khan in his films. So, he attained the stature of a star in his own right. Later, he persuaded Bade Ghulam Ali khan to sing a classical bandish in Mughal - e – Azam. It was with Baiju Bawara that the world took notice that Rafi Sahab was endowed with a nearly divine gift to take singing to an unprecedented heights.

Post Baiju Bawara (1952), Naushad started believing that in Mohammad Rafi he had discovered a peerless talent and he almost stopped looking beyond Rafi and Lata for the choice of singers except for an occasional song or two by others. So, regardless of the actor on whom the song was to be filmed, Rafi Sahab would be the singer. Rafi Sahab did indeed have the quality to mould his voice according to the actor. But after the mid-1960s there crept an element of repetitiveness into Naushad’s compositions, signifying that he had peaked. It is a coincidence that post Aradhana, when the era of Kishore Kumar’s dominance started, Naushad's career as a composer started declining. Although he remained active for many years, the industry did not pay premium for his past glory.

Along with Shakeel Badayuni, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi Sahab, Naushad had one of the most formidable and enduring composer-lyricist-singer combinations which rolled out countless immortal songs. Among the female singers, he did use Asha Bhosle sporadically, but his best was reserved for Lataji. What was so unique about this combination? Naushad and Shakeel had both been groomed in the Lucknowi tradition of Urdu. Shakeel was able to blend the regional Awadhi-Bhojpuri dialect with his urdu/Hindustani in films like Mother India and Ganga Jamuna. And these lyrics were masterfully composed by Naushad with a blend of Hindustani classical and folk music. Lataji and Rafi Sahab were both gifted to adapt to any mood, any situation. So, in spite of Naushad sticking to a core team for nearly two decades he was able to offer a lot of range and variety.

Add to the Lyricist, composer and singer combination an actor and you get amazing results. Naushad composed music for fifteen films starring Dilip Kumar between 1948 and 1968. Out of these fifteen films only one, Andaz (1949), had lyrics by Majroh Sultanpuri and Prem Dhawan; for the others Shakeel Badayuni penned the lyrics and in only one of the films Babul (1950), Naushad used Talat Mahmood, not Rafi Sahab, as a singer. The combination has produced some of the all-time great classic songs by Rafi Sahab.

Two 'rasas' - Shringar and Karuna - were the forte of Naushad. His composition in raag Lalit "ek shahanshah ne banwa ke hasin" is one of the finest examples of Shringar. So is "ghoonghat nahin kholungi in Mother India. There are countless more. In karuna ras with viyog we have gems like Nagari Nagari dware dware or do Hanson Ka joda, apart from many more.

The only limiting factor - and it was a big one - was that Naushad and Shakeel remained rooted in romance and pathos. They never tried to venture into the lyrics with social messages - the type penned by Sahir.

Sachin Dev Burman

If Naushad was the Mughal of film music, SD Burman indeed had a royal lineage. His biography was titled S.D. Burman: The Prince–Musician by the authors Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal. While Naushad was giving a defining shape to Hindi film music in the 1940s, SD was climbing up in the Bengali music world, a space which has a unique niche. Sachin da set out to conquer the music world of Mumbai towards the end of the decade. He made people take notice with Do Bhai (1947) in which Geeta Dutt’s mera sundar sapna beet gaya became a hit. This was the beginning of one of the most remarkable and distinguished careers in Hindi film music. By the time Sachin Da entered the Mumbai industry, Naushad was an established star. Sachin Da, having enormous talent and potential, made rapid strides and soon became a strong presence. 

Today, looking back at the era one would marvel at his seamless transition from Bengali musical tradition to something that has a pan India appeal. But Sachin da established himself and created a niche very quickly.

If Naushad was a regular in the films of AR Kardar, AU Sunny and Mehboob Khan, Dev Anand's Navketan persisted with SD for many years and he composed music for fourteen films of Navketan. Even Guru Dutt collaborated with Sachin da for four films - Baazi, Jaal, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool. Bimal Roy, one of the most respected filmmakers the industry has had, for whom Salil Choudhury was the regular composer, turned to SD for Devdas, Sujata and Bandini. And the music was one of the best ingredients of these classics.

If Naushad and Shakeel teamed up for creating the music of the royals in Mughal - e - Azam, SD and Sahir created the music of the oppressed and the proletariat in Guru Dutt's Pyasa.

If Naushad got maestros like Puluskar and Bade Ghulam Ali to sing, SD Burman roped in Pt. Samta Prasad to play tabla in nache man mora magan tik ta dhigi dhigi and together with Rafi Sahab created an immortal song.

As his career progressed SD blended various traditions – Bengali folk, Baul, Ravindra Sangeet, folk of other parts of India and Western – into Hindustani classical to create peerless music. He wove these traditions into his distinctive, always compelling, compositions, with minimalist orchestration and poetic lyrics. He remained rooted in the various Bengali folk forms (the magical bhatiali songs in Sujata – Sun mere bandhu re – and Bandini – Mere sajan hai us paar – and the traditional bhajan piece Aaj sajan mohe ang laga le in Pyaasa). He drew a great deal from Rabindra Sangeet (right up to Tere mere milan ki yeh raina in Abhimaan). He excelled in Hindustani light classical music , but was open to absorb and adapt popular Western forms like ‘party music’ (the seductive Raat akeli hai, bujh gaye diye from Jewel Thief is an outstanding example). He kept pace with the changing taste of the masses and that is why he never fell back in the race. When yodelling started appearing in film music, Sachin da used Kishore Kumar's talent in songs like ye dil na hota bechara and haal Kaisa hai janab Ka.

I have talked about his transition from Bengali regional to the mainstream Hindi cinema. Considering that he came from a Bengali background, his compositions of Urdu Ghazal and Nazm penned by poets like Sahir and Kaifi Azami in Guru Dutt’s Pyasa and Kaagaz ke Phool, would make a listener think that he had a sound grooming in Urdu tradition.

Sachin Dev  Burman offered the widest variety one could think of – every mood, every genre, every situation. He made experiments which many would not dare to do. For example he converted Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana le, a ghazal of Sahir into a club song. He used his strong grounding in classical music and his wide exposure to folk music for creating compositions that perfectly expressed the situations they were made for, making music that created moods.

S D Burman’s uncanny ability to choose the right voice for each song lifted the song to the level of a perfect song in all aspects. Such was SD’s grasp of the mood and the situation that he was able to pick up the right singer every time and every time it was perfect. For Dev Anand, most of whose songs were sung by Rafi Sahab or Kishore Kumar, SD used Hemant Kumar (ye raat ye chandani phir kahan and chup hai dharti chup hain chand sitare) and Talat Mahmood (jayein to jayein kahan) for specific moods and situations. And what gems has he created? Similarly, even though Rafi Sahab was the regular voice for Guru Dutt, SD used Hemant Kumar's voice for the song Jaane wo kaise log the. Another masterstroke and an immortal song. He was instrumental in discovering and mentoring talents like Geeta Dutt and Kishore Kumar who went on to become legends in their own right. SD was to Geeta Dutt what Naushad was to Noor Jehan and Shamshad Begum in their early years. Geeta Dutt’s work with SD Burman in films such as Do Bhai, Baazi, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool remains a listener’s delight and encompasses many genres and emotions in music.

The range and variety of SD's compositions was also due to the lyricists with whom he worked. Sahir Ludhianavi worked with him in 18 films including Pyaasa, Taxi Driver, House No. 44, Munimji, Baazi;  Majrooh Sultanpuri in 20 films including Abhiman Sujata, Phagun, Jewel Thief, Baat Ek Raat Ki, Nau Do Gyaarah, Paying Guest. He collaborated with Shailendra for films like Bandini, Meri Surat Teri Aankhen, Guide, Kala Bazar, Insaan Jaag Utha. Gulzar got his first break with SD in Bandini with mora gora ang lei le. If we list the best songs of the most well-known lyricists of Indian film music, every list is sure to include songs composed by S D Burman. Aradhana and Chupke Chupke are among the best films of Anand Bakshi. Neeraj penned the lyrics for films like Sharmilee and Prem Pujari.

It can be said that S D Burman operated at a much wider canvass and probably nobody would produce as much range and variety, blending as many diverse influences as he did with remarkable ease.

Adding SD Burman the singer to the equation adds further uniqueness.

1969 and after:

1969 turned out to be a watershed year in the history of Hindi film music. Kishore Kumar, a very talented and naturally gifted singer, for whom SD had always had a liking, but who had remained on the periphery in spite of his enormous talent, took the charts by storm after the release of Aradhana. Simultaneously, a new superstar was born in Rajesh Khanna. The new generation got hooked to a new style of music.  This was an announcement that the public taste had undergone a change. And SD Burman became the change agent. SD Burman, who had set the trend, remained relevant by delivering hit music till his death. SD's hits during this period include Prem Pujari (1970), Ishq Par Zor Nahin (1970), Gambler (1971), Naya Zamana (1971), Sharmilee (1971)Tere Mere Sapne (1971)Yeh Gulistan Hamara (1972), Zindagi Zindagi(1972) Anuraag (1972), Abhimaan (1973), Jugnu(1973), Chhupa Rustam (1973), Phagun (1973), Prem Nagar (1974), Sagina (1974), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Mili (1975).

However, Naushad, who had raised the level of film music giving it respectability, probably failed to read the pulse of the audience. Or, was the purist groomed in the Lucknowi tradition trapped in a time warp, reluctant to make adjustments? His work after 1969, excluding the background score of Pakeezah, is mostly unremarkable. That, however, does not take away the fact that Naushad was the original trendsetter and when he was at his peak others would use him as the benchmark.

Was 1969 a sudden happening?
This question needs to be answered. My revered Guru, inarguably the biggest shaping influence in my life, Prof. Ram Kirti Shukla, prompted me to think when he said, "The changes in art forms always reflect the changes taking place in society and you must explain why the music changed in 1969."

Guruji, here is my answer. Post independence, the Indian society was undergoing a transformation and the urban middle class was steadily growing, even if not at a very fast pace. Industrialization brought with it, not only the technology, the cultural influence too. People had access to the Beatles and Elvis Presley. That was reflected in growing influence of western music and instruments in Hindi cinema. Shankar Jaikishan were pioneers in assimilating the western music. And they were undisputed leaders in mass popularity during the 1960s. They might have continued to be leaders but for Jaikishan's untimely death in 1971.

1969 was only the culmination of a phenomenon which was going on. It changed the pecking order. Naushad and Rafi were relegated to the back rows.

Conclusion? I would still not make any concluding remark and would maintain that there is uniqueness about every artist which must be respected. T S Eliot has said that popular taste keeps changing but a genius changes the art of expression, and changes the taste itself. Naushad did so in 1944 with Rattan and SD Burman with Aradhana in 1969. The music scene made irreversible leaps on both the occasions. The trendsetters were two geniuses. Both were great, make your choice if you want.